Camille said it perfectly: "This is the BEST Christmas EVER- I think it's because Covid made us stay home and spend so much time as a family."
It really was the BEST! And now we have a week of relaxing. We are very much looking forward to it.
For the first time in our married lives, we had Christmas Eve with just our little family. Typically we go and spend Christmas Eve with my cousins who live in the area, but due to Covid, that was not an option.
We were excited to have it just be us. We love being with my cousins, but were happy for the opportunity to do our own thing this year.
I wanted to make a special dinner, and after a lot of thought I landed on tamales. I thought it would be something different and fun. Turns out, they were a bit of a flop. They were too spicy, they were far more difficult to heat up than I expected (I bought frozen tamales from a local restaurant, but I am not used to the steaming method and underestimated how long they would take to heat up). It was fine in the end, but not the incredible, memorable experience I was hoping for.
Then we read a lot of Christmas stories (my favorite is Red Ranger Came Calling). We read Luke 2 and Matthew 1 from the Bible and then Twas the Night Before Christmas. The girls then opened up their annual Christmas Eve pajamas, and we watched The Minions Christmas Special and also Garfield's Christmas special- the one both Ben and I watch as children, and in particular that Ben watched every Christmas Eve as part of his family Christmas traditions.
It was a sweet evening. There will come a time when we no longer have children at home in which to provide and share Christmas magic. That will be a sad, sad time.
In an effort to not completely waste a day where we had no plans, the girls got to work on the sewing machine. Claire and Camille each made a skirt and Audra finished piecing together the blocks for a quilt top.
